Technical Field
The invention relates to a method, an apparatus and a computer program product for controlling a television. Particularly, the invention relates to a method, an apparatus and a computer program product for switching television channels.
Related Art
To accommodate today's busy lifestyles, various mobile apparatuses with portability and compact size have been developed. Taking a personal digital assistant (PDA), a PDA phone or a smart phone as an example, it not only comes with a variety of functions as provided in a conventional communication device, but also offers convenience to a user through the installation of applications (APP).
For example, a plurality of applications used for controlling a television have been developed. Such applications integrate a conventional television remote control into a mobile apparatus, where a simulated operating interface of the television remote control is displayed on the mobile apparatus so that the user can perform operations on the operating interface to control the television to execute the corresponding functions.
However, these applications only allow the user to switch the television channels forward or backward in a regular channel sequence. Although such channel switching method is simple and intuitive, when the television channel to be tuned is far away from the currently watched television channel in the channel sequence, the user cannot rapidly switch to the desired television channel. On the other hand, although some existing techniques provide the user to set a personal channel list according to user preferences, such channel list still relies on the user's manual settings, which cannot make an effective use of the advantages supported by the mobile apparatus such as gesture operation, programmability and internet accessibility.